Psychometric evaluation of the Brazilian version of the Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale - Research Short-Form for...

Anxiety symptoms are highly prevalent during the postpartum period; however, validated instruments to measure postpartum-specific anxiety in Brazil are lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale - Research Short-Form for Global Crises (PSAS-BR-RSF-C) in a Brazilian sample.

A convenience sample of 189 Brazilian mothers of infants aged 0 to 12 months completed the PSAS-BR-RSF-C, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) online. Spearman correlations, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with Diagonally Weighted Least Squares estimation, and McDonald's omega reliability indices were calculated.

CFA supported the four-factor structure proposed for the original instrument (CFI = 0.978; TLI = 0.970; RMSEA = 0.060 [90% CI: 0.035-0.083]; SRMR = 0.077). The PSAS-BR-RSF-C total score showed moderate-to-strong and significant correlations with measures of anxiety (GAD-7; r = .52), depression (EPDS; r = .61), and self-criticism (SCS; r = .52), demonstrating good convergent validity. Overall internal consistency was satisfactory (McDonald's ω = 0.85).

These findings provide initial support for the validity and overall internal consistency of the PSAS-BR-RSF-C in Brazilian postpartum samples, while indicating that the reliability of some factor scores warrants further investigation. The instrument offers a brief, culturally adapted tool for researchers and clinicians assessing postpartum anxiety in Brazil, including during global health crises.